Grace Tats

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Saturday, 18 March 2017

Yes, I finally had time to tweak my pattern — you can download it here. Many thanks to Muskaan for test-tatting my pattern, and for her very helpful and detailed comments on it. If you check out her test-tatting blogpost, you'll see her 3D tatted tree trunk for these earrings. I intend to try that out for my next pair!

Here are a couple more pictures of the earrings. The one in off-white is actually a prototype, and the one with the square beads at the base I tatted for myself — managed to finish them just in time for a party on Christmas Day!

Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Actually, it's not quite ready yet. It's freeform and unconventional, so I've been uncertain how to write it up. But a few people have said that they're waiting for the pattern, so I will just put this out as is. I'd welcome any feedback – then I can continue to improve my description of this pattern. So, here it is! :-)
[Update March 2017: I have now improved the pattern and changed the links to go to the updated version.]

Thursday, 18 February 2016

In April 2013, the Danish Tatting Association sent out a call for tatting designs. They were celebrating their 20th anniversary, and they wanted to put out a commemorative issue with new designs. I heard about this through Craftree/InTatters (here's the discussion thread). I decided to try doing something for them.

I cogitated for a while. I felt I ought to design something Danish. The first thing that occurred to me was a Viking longship. But I felt it ought to be 3-D, and I didn't feel up to tatting that. Then I thought about Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales. Swan? No, that had been done. Mermaid? That had been done, too. Tin soldier? Yeah, he was steadfast, but he didn't seem compelling. Then I thought that, just as there was a Celtic cross, there might well be a Danish cross. I Googled "Danish cross", and found the Dagmar Cross (have a look at it here — scroll down to see a picture of the original two-sided Dagmar Cross and read its story).

So I designed a tatted version of the side with the five medallions. And here is how my design looks:

I submitted this pattern to the Danish Tatting Association in July 2013, in good time for them to include it in the December 2013 20th anniversary edition of their magazine, Orkis Bladet.

After that, with their permission, I started getting the pattern ready for publication on this website. I did the instructions and the diagrams and got them test-tatted. And then... well, I didn't like the tatted models I had. One (the green and pink) was in Milford Mercer thread, which is rather sticky. When I retatted it in better Lizbeth thread (Herbal Garden and Autumn Spice) the ring sizes came out a bit different. But then, I didn't use flat colours for the Lizbeth model, so the construction of the cross wasn't so clear. I thought I ought to tat another model. But — I will confess to you — this pattern was no fun to tat! And none of the flat colours I had seemed right, anyway. So I kept putting this task off, since there were lots of other things that were more fun to do.

But, tonight, I finally looked at my pattern again. It's really all right! The instructions are test-tatted; they are clear enough, and mistakes have been fixed. My two models do show quite well how the cross should look. So why am I making such a fuss? It's not perfect, but it will do. So, all I did tonight was to add the watermarks to the pictures and diagrams, and at long last, HERE IT IS. :-)

Thursday, 26 November 2015

As I explained in my previous post, none of the Celtic shuttles I had on hand were quite right for the Japanese Twisted Clover Doily, so I ended up making my own.

How to make the Celtic shuttles

I started with a laundry detergent jug. Initially I tried cutting narrow flat shuttles from its sides, but these turned out to be much too soft. Then I noticed that there were ribs on the bottom of the jug:

Ribs on the bottom of a 5-L / 1 gallon laundry jug

The ribs are only found on the larger sizes of jugs (five litres or one gallon). This particular jug seems to be made partly of recycled material, and it is quite soft and easy to cut, so the ribs are needed for stiffening. So:

Step 1. Cut off the bottom of the jug. I'd actually recommend that you include a bit more of the side than I did here.

Ribbed bottom of a gallon jug

Step 2. Cut strips from the bottom of the jug. One rib in each strip, two strips for each shuttle. Match the lengths of the strips — the outer ribs are shorter, the inner ribs are longer.

Cut along the sides of the ribs

Step 3. Trim the strips so that they're no wider than the ribs, and cut the ends so that they taper a bit. For these particular jugs, I found that a sharp pair of scissors worked better than a knife or box cutter.

Notice that the tips point upwards from the table top

Step 4. Use an awl to drill two or three holes along the middle of the ribs. Nest the ribs so that they lie close against each other, then drill a hole about one inch from each end, and another halfway along the length. Drill through both pieces.

Rib strips with awl

Nested strips after the holes have been drilled

Step 5. Turn one strip over so that the convex surfaces of the ribs face each other. The holes should still be nicely lined up. See how the tips of the strips now come together? :-)

Convex sides of the ribs now facing - tips come together

Step 6. Sew the two strips together with sewing thread. For longer shuttles, use a figure-8 method of sewing. Sew through the holes several times and tie off securely.

Step 7. Trim the sides and ends to make the shuttle as smooth and slim as possible. But don't cut the ends shorter, or the tips won't meet. The shuttle is now finished! :-D

The finished size is about 4 in / 10 cm long. It has a square cross-section, about 0.4 in / 1 cm wide across the diagonal. The exact length and width will depend on the jug you use, and which part of the bottom you cut the strips from.

Completed shuttle

Completed shuttle - tips come together

The shuttles in use

For the Japanese Twisted Clover Doily, I used two of my homemade shuttles. I was able to wind about nine armspans on each of them. The fully wound shuttles were just narrow enough to pass through the spaces below the clovers (as explained in my previous post).

Japanese Twisted Clover Doily with homemade Celtic shuttles

My homemade Celtic shuttle passing through the chain space in the clover round

So, these shuttles were just right for this project. Narrower than regular celtic shuttles, but wider than the super-slim acrylic Celtic shuttles. For me, it was important that their tips came together so that the thread didn't unwind every time I dropped or laid down the shuttle.

I hope my instructions have been clear; please let me know if you need any further clarification. If you try making similar shuttles, I would love to see some pictures! ;-)

Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Here I am, after a break of almost a year. I will try to fill out all the things I promised to show you - or at least some of them!

So, item 1 - Japanese doily. This is Doily 11 in Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. She has at least one other book with the same title, but this is the one with the biggish doily on the cover. Here's a listing for it.

Doily 11, Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige

This doily is very pretty, and it grows quite fast. That's why I decided to tat it as a gift for my friend's mother. However, it proved tougher to do than I expected.

First problem — it really ruffles a lot!

Rounds 1 & 2

Actually, I had problems in Round 1. The clovers were quite squashed together. Never mind, I said, it will flatten out in Round 2. Well, it didn't …

Round 3 in progress

Round 3 didn't fix it either; it seemed even worse …

Rounds 1, 2 & 3 done

Yes, I am really impressed at the ruffling…

So, for the first time, I blocked a doily while it was still in progress.

Being blocked after Round 3

Did that fix it? Not really; the succeeding rounds were still ruffling…

Ruffling after Round 5

Ruffling after completing the doily

So of course I blocked it after I finished the six rounds of the doily. Then it finally lay flat!

The finished doily after blocking

So then I rolled it into a tube with wrapping paper, and it went into my suitcase, and it travelled all the way from Singapore to Ecuador, then right across South America, and finally, in Buenos Aires, I presented it to my friend's mother, as a thank-you for hosting us. To my relief, it was still flat! She put it into her drawer of treasures, with her pieces of beautiful linen. And I fervently hope it's not ruffling up as it lies there quietly…

If I were to do this doily again, I wonder how I would reduce the ruffling. Was the ruffling so bad because there were too many clovers for the diameter of each round? Should I make the chains in the clover rounds a bit longer, then? I'd be interested in your ideas.

Second problem — the twist in the clovers

The instructions show how the twist in the necks of the clovers is done — first you tat the chain after the clover, then you pass the shuttle through the window made by the previous chain and, voila, there's the twist. Ms. Fujishige used Size 10 thread and a Clover shuttle. I had some Size 10 thread, but it felt coarse and I hated tatting with it, so I switched to Lizbeth Size 20. But then the shuttle was too fat to pass through the window!

So I said, ok, I will twist the clover inside and through that window, tat the chain, then untwist the clover. But that didn't work very well. I ended up putting too many twists on the neck, and they didn't sit very well, and I couldn't seem to make them look consistent. I realised that I needed Celtic shuttles. I had a regular Celtic shuttle (shaped like a post shuttle, but longer and narrower), but that wasn't narrow enough. Then I tried the super-narrow Celtic shuttles made by Tony and Patty Dowden (e.g., here). These were certainly narrow enough — but I found them a bit annoying to use. Either I had to do a half-hitch of the thread on one tip and then it didn't unwind nicely, or I didn't do the half-hitch and then it would unwind every time I dropped the shuttle. I had never noticed before how often I drop the shuttle!

But, I finally solved the problem by making my own shuttles out of a laundry detergent jug. That will be the subject of my next post…

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Yes, I am back from a month in South America, and there are so many things I want to blog about! I may not ever do justice to all of them, so here are a few glimpses:

1. White doily I made for my friend's mother:

This is item 11 in Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. I call it the "Japanese Twisted Clover Doily" because the twisted clover stems in Rounds 2, 4 and 6 are a major feature. I didn't want to show everyone until I had given it to my friend's mother. She has now received it! :-) We stayed with her while we were in Buenos Aires, 21 October–1 November.

2. Celtic shuttles I invented from a laundry detergent jug:

Necessity is the mother of invention — I found I couldn't do the twisted clovers unless I had celtic shuttles that wouldn't unwind every time I dropped them. Yes, yes — I do want to do a blog post showing you how I made them…

3. SOUTH AMERICA TRIP.
Actually, there should be several blog posts on each of the following.
A. Ecuador - Galapagos Islands:
Actually, I lost my photos because I lost my camera at the next stage of our trip. But I'll show a few pictures from my friend's camera:

Yes, giant tortoises. Definitely a highlight. More on them later…

Sierra Negra volcano crater. More on this later…

B. Peru - Cusco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu:

Yes, Machu Picchu. We were there! We made it there and back! :-)

C. Argentina & Brazil - Iguazu Falls:

Many majestic waters. Yes…

D. Argentina - Buenos Aires. Much yummy barbecued meat. A day at a ranch. Evita's tomb. Lovely times with friends…

4. Also, now that I've finally resumed work on the Jan Stawasz Big Doily, I will probably at some point be doing a post about hiding ends — not exactly with joy, but with equanimity…

Saturday, 27 September 2014

Some of you know that in the past few months there have been several instances of tatting designers having their patterns stolen from them — that is, published elsewhere without permission from them, or acknowledgement of them as the designers. Some of them have blogged about this — Jane Eborall, Corina Mayfeldt, and Marilee Rockley.

Back in March this year, I myself was alerted to a pattern in a magazine with a diagram looking quite remarkably like my diagram for my Cherry Blossom Hearts. But since it is such a very simple pattern, almost generic, I didn't really have much of a case for plagiarism.

I decided then that I would watermark my photos and diagrams (though I am not going to get them patented or registered with a copyright registry). However, because of my mum's illness and death, I didn't do much about it. Also, it took some time to find the right software to do the watermark.

But just a few days ago, it happened again — a designer's patterns, including her diagrams, popped up on a website without her permission, or any indication that they were her designs. That galvanised me into action. Since I have only a few designs, watermarking them was not too impossible a task.

So, it's now done. If you go to my pattern page (tab above), you'll see that all the photos on that page now have watermarks on them, and if you download the linked patterns, they all have watermarks, too.

If you have previously downloaded my patterns, I'd be glad if you could replace them with the latest versions. And if you're sharing the patterns to others, please refer them to my blog, because I might make further revisions to this or that pattern.